A Name Conveyed
by mystica88
Summary: Achmed and Gwydion Navarne race to save Rhapsody from a blast form the past. Takes place long after Elegy.
1. chapter 1

All the characters in this story are the product of and belong solely to Ms. Elizabeth Haydon.

A Name Conveyed

Chapter 1

The Firbolg King leaned back in his chair with an exasperated sigh.

"Oi take it your meetin' with the delegates din' go as smoothly as planed?" his giant Sergeant Major asked.

"If I never have to speak to another one of those arse-rag Cymrian politicians again, it will be too soon," growled Achmed between gritted teeth.

Grunthor chuckled, "Sir, if you stopped talkin' to 'em, they 'ould think ur goin' to attack them an' then these lil' hills o urs 'ould be swarmin' with em."

"And that's the only reason that I put up with any of it."

"That an' to keep 'er ladyship from bein' angry 'ith you."

Achmed made no reply. He sat back in his chair with eyes closed, trying to clear his aching head from the mindless prattle that had filled it for the last several hours. Trade agreements could be so damned annoying.

Suddenly the king rose from his chair, taking long, quick, silent strides toward the door. Grunthor watched him go in silence. Just before gaining his escape, Achmed stopped and without turning said, "You know where to find me if I'm needed." and slipped out of the room completely.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Storming down the corridors, Achmed began to completely erase the day's events from his mind. He could easily make his mind relax, but it would take something more to get his rigid, nerve-tensed body to relax. He knew what he needed to do. Something he did every evening at this time… find her.

He came to the cave opening that he and Rhapsody used to sit at and stood on the edge of the precipice, breathing in the evening air. He brought the stifling, yet comforting, veil down that hid his hideous face from the world. Removing his gloves from his hands, he raised one, as if reaching out to grab a hold of the breeze that shifted across the tunnel opening.

Closing his eyes, he willed his heart to slow as he began searching the wind for a pulse that he knew almost as well as his own. The pulse that made up the other half of him that he had been listening to for the past few hundred, if not thousands, of years. Various faint beats brushed across his hand and were quickly disregarded and left to their own devises as his focus narrowed in on the heart that he sought.

Then he heard it, faint and distant at first but as he turned his full attention on it the beats became louder and nearer to him. In fact they were becoming a part of him as he willed his own heart to match the calm steady beating that he now heard.

Her pulse had always had this calming and equalizing effect on him. It was one of the a few pleasant sensations that he had found in the world, and Rhapsody never truly knew how much this mattered to him.

The heartbeat was slow and calm, almost contemplative, as it resounded in the Dharcian's heart and mind. She was most likely singing her evening aubade at this time. These were the song prayers that she would sing to the sun and the stars as they changed their positions in the sky.

Achmed had found this to be the best time to find her since she was at such peace as she sang her prayers. Her pulse was exactly how and where it should be, all was right with his world for this night. Just as Achmed was about to release his heart from hers and retire himself for the night the heart suddenly flickered. The pulse began to rapidly quicken and pound in both his and her chest. Something was happening.

"Someone must have startled her," he thought. "She is, after all, safe in her palace where nothing can happen to her. True her idiot husband has left with his uncle and their son for a trip to Gaementia, but it is the Lady that the guards are more attentive of anyway."

But the pulse did not calm down as it should have if it was just something suddenly startling her. In fact it was pounding harder and faster. His own breath came in quick ragged gulps, which must be mimicking what hers was like as his heart raced in his chest.

Then the thing that chilled Achmed to the core came. The pulse slowed, and slowed dramatically. It became the very even, measured, almost detached beat that he also knew only too well. This was what her heart sounded like when faced with death and danger. She was fighting for her life.

He couldn't stand it any longer; he had to see what was happening. There was only one way that he could actually see what was happening, and that was to use his path lore. He had the ability to look great distances in order to find a correct path; sometimes he could do this just to see what was ahead. But he had never tried this ability over this great of distance. It might not work, but he had to try.  
Closing his eyes again, Achmed concentrated on the pulse, gathered his lore into himself, and let it fly down the connection that he held to Rhapsody. His head reeled as his vision spun down the corridor of his mind to where his friend and adopted sister fought for her life.

His vision of the scene was blurred and difficult to see clearly, but he was able to see enough. Rhapsody was surrounded by at least twenty men in masks. The only reason it seemed that Rhapsody hadn't yet fallen was they didn't seem intent on killing. They wanted to incapacitate, probably to capture her.

They were in the palace gardens as Achmed had guessed Rhapsody would be at that time. But how these men had gotten into the guarded walls of the palace, and were now going unchallenged as they attempted to steal the Lady, was unfathomable.

It was then that he noticed that there was absolutely no sound coming from the battle. Not even when the men's mouths would open in a cry of pain as one of Rhapsody's blows would hit its mark. There was no sound of steel hitting steel or fists making contact. Silence reigned complete.

The only other time that Achmed had seen anything like this was when Rhapsody had summoned the name of silence. But why would she be covering up the sounds of her attempted abduction? There must be another Namer present, but the question still remained, what did a Namer want to capture Rhapsody for?

Achmed wrenched his concentration from the fight and began looking around the garden. Then he saw it, a faint, fuzzy outline of a person standing stock still in the shadows of the trees, closely watching the skirmish. This must be the Namer.

After finding this person, Achmed turned his attention back to the fight. Rhapsody was weakening; non-fatal blows began to make contact upon her. She was stumbling with weariness and would not stand up to these men much longer. Suddenly, as if out of thin air, two men came up behind her and threw a net over her, bringing her to the ground. All the men still standing swarmed the fallen Lady and began to restrain her. More blows rained down upon her as they tied her wrists together behind her back. She still was putting up a struggle that was useless. Her heart was now racing in panic again. Her detachedness was gone as she saw her efforts to resist were useless. Then a large man made one crashing blow behind her head, knocking her out, and abruptly ending Achmed's vision.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sudden ending of the scene overwhelmed him as his knees gave way under neither him. His breath came in huge gulps as he tried to clear his head and organize his thoughts on what he had just witnessed. He had to go to her; there was no question in that. He had to leave as soon as possible. He could easily track her heart, as he could still hear it in the back of his mind.

Carefully, and slowly Achmed rose off the ground, finding his equilibrium once again. Once he was completely steady, he quickly turned and nearly ran back to the Cauldron. He had to tell Grunthor, but he could not take the giant with him. Someone had to stay and guard the sleeping child.


	2. chapter 2

Chapter 2

Woozily, Rhapsody grappled with consciousness. She fought her way to awareness to find herself restrained in some rickety enclosed wagon, bouncing down some unknown path. The air within was stifling.

On attempting to move she found that her wrists were shackled behind her back and there were shackles on her ankles as well. These were connected by a chain that looped through an iron ring bolted to the floor of the wagon. A scarf was tied around her head and was stuffed in her mouth, acting as a gag. Someone didn't want her going anywhere or alerting anyone of her presence.

She tried to run through all the events that brought her to this spot, but nothing seemed to add up. First she was singing her aubades and then out of nowhere men were bearing down on her. A strange vibrational music hummed around her and she found it difficult to focus on her attackers. It was as if they were not there, yet they still were. At the same time silence completely descended on her as she drew Daystar Clarion. Its normal Clarion call was gone and so was all the sound around her.

"It had to have been a Namer," she thought. "But what Namer would do something like this?"

Suddenly the wagon came to a halt and sounds of movement were heard outside. Murmured voices sounded outside as keys were rattled. Dim moonlight brushed her face as the door to the wagon was opened. A man shaped shadow stepped into the light, blocking her brief view of the stars outside.

"Well, Rhapsody, good, you're awake," the shadow murmured. "It is so nice to see you again. It really has been too long."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Achmed had left so quickly he never really thought about what he could possibly do for Rhapsody. He was racing across the Kravensfield plain before thought actually caught up with him. He couldn't remember the last time that he had acted like this before thinking it out. He always analyzed and planed everything before going into it. Now he found himself racing to Rhapsody's rescue without ever thinking how he was actually going to help her, or how he was to get her away from twenty plus skilled fighters and possibly a very adept Namer.

These thoughts suddenly hit the Dharcian with crushing force. He reined in his lathered horse and pondered what he was up against for the first time.

There was no way that he could take on these captors on his own, that was obvious. But anyone he took he would somehow have to explain how it was he was tracking her. Anyone who already knew about his abilities was either guarding something more important, captured, or across the ocean on that bloody sea mage island. Same goes for anyone that he would actually trust with this information. He needed at least one helper, but there was no one left that he could trust.

Then it hit him; there was one other left that he could trust, Duke Gwydion. He loved Rhapsody as a second mother and was as trustworthy as they come. And not only could Achmed trust him, but he brought with him the elemental power of the wind because of his tie to the sword, Tysterisk. He would be perfect, and he was on the way.

With at least that part of his rescue sorted out he spurred his tired horse into gallop once again.


	3. chapter 3

Chapter 3

"You don't remember me, do you Rhapsody?" the deep calm voice of the shadow murmured as he entered to wagon in which the Rhapsody was chained. Being still gagged, Rhapsody made none of the sarcastic responses that she had for him.

Chuckling, the man continued, "My, where are my manners? It isn't nice to ask someone questions while they are unable to talk. Let me help you with that my dear." The shadow descended on her as he untied the scarf that had her gagged. She could smell a faint burnt odor on the man, as if he had been standing too close to a fire for too long. His breathing was deep and measured, and a strange type of vibration seemed to emanate from him. He seemed almost familiar yet incredibly disturbing to Rhapsody.

"There, now tell me if you know who I am my dear."

"Maybe I would know you better if you would let me see your face. As of now all I know about you is your foul penchant of kidnapping Lady's for unknown purposes, right out of their own palace gardens. That takes some nerve. By now the whole army must be out looking for me and the men who took me."

"Hmm, still the brassy young girl that I remember, never one to go timid and scared in the face of danger," he said. "Well, if you don't know who I am already, I'm not going to enlighten you, yet anyways. We have a bit of a journey before I can be completely free to… converse with you."

"By converse I assume you mean do what you want to, if you make it to that point. You're going to have a lot of men on your trail very soon."

A soft derisive laugh came from deep in the shadow's throat. "I wouldn't worry too much about that, your people probably don't even know that you're gone yet. And even if they do, they should have no reason to suspect foul play. No one saw or heard any of our altercation and we left no evidence of it."

Stunned, Rhapsody suddenly realized that what this man said was probably true. She did have a hard time seeing her assailants, and silence had complete control during the battle. If this man could manage to silence and conceal his men, he must be able to have set everything back into order before leaving. There was no one to think that harm might have come to her. She would often sneak from the palace when she could, but she would always tell her husband or Anborn when she did this. With neither of them there, the other people at the palace would assume that she had just left for a while to clear her head.

"Oh, by the way, that was a very good fight that you put up back there. It seems those many years living on the street did some good. Of course, it helps when you have such a unique and special sword," he said as he pulled her sword from its sheaf that he now wore. There was no Clarion call like when she drew it, only a dull crackling sound. The blade glowed but instead of the clean flames that licked the blade when she held it, dark sparks would sporadically dance along it. If there had been any doubt in Rhapsody's mind before, it was gone now. This was a F'dor, and he had the most powerful elemental sword in his possession.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gwydion was asleep in his warm bed, dreaming peacefully when he suddenly roused from his sleep. There seemed to be nothing that could have awakened him when he looked around, but a nagging sensation in the back of his mind told him that he was not alone in his room. Slowly and quietly he pulled his sheaved sword from under his pillow and prepared to draw.

Then a shadow stepped into the moonlight that streamed through his window. "Good, you knew I was here. There are few who would ever even know that I was in the room before their throats were slit," a sandy voice grated.

Suddenly relaxing, Gwydion replied, "Achmed, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I wish you could learn to just announce your presence instead of testing me and my preparedness every time you come to call."

Achmed let out a short harsh laugh before lighting a near by lamp. "Perhaps it would be nicer of me, but then again, who ever accused me of being nice."

"That is true. Now why is it that you have come to scare me out of a perfectly good sleep tonight?"

Completely serious and standoffish as always, Achmed replied, "Your grandmother has been abducted from her palace and I need your help in getting her back. So get dressed and get us two of your fastest horses, we have a lot of distance to make up." Saying this, Achmed turned and was nearly out the door before Gwydion had recovered from his shock.

"Hold on, what do you mean Rhapsody has been abducted? I have heard nothing of this and if it were true the whole alliance would know about it."

Sighing, Achmed stopped and turned to face the young man once again. "I can explain more fully after we get underway, but right now all I can say is that I am the only one who knows of her disappearance and we are the only ones who are currently able to go after her. Your retarded godfather went and left her completely unwatched when he took himself, Anborn, and their son away on some stupid diplomatic trip over to that bloody sea mage island. Now, as always, I'm the one who has to leave my kingdom to go and rescue her. Now get dressed and meet me in the stables, I will tell you more later." With that he turned and vanished out the door, leaving the stunned duke in his wake.

After a few seconds of staring in unbelief after the Firbolg king, the Duke of Navarne quickly got up and began dressing, wondering what on earth had just happened to him.

Once he had dressed and quickly grabbed some provisions, such as dried meat, travel cakes, and water canteens, Gwydion ran out to the stable to find that Achmed had already chosen the horses that they would ride and had them saddled.

"Would you please explain to me exactly what is going on and where it is we are going?" the duke asked.

"I'll explain more once we leave. As for where we are going, best I can figure they are headed for the port in Avanderre. We must catch up with them before they reach the port."

"Or they'll sail away and we will not be able to catch them?"

"That and I will no longer be able to track them. Now this I will explain after we have left the city." With that Achmed leaped onto his horse and spurred it out of the stables and out the gates. Having no other choice, Gwydion did the same and quickly caught up with the king as he raced toward the city gates.

Guards stopped them as they came up close to the closed gates. "Who goes there, and where are you heading in such a hurry at this late hour."

"Relax Garit, it's me, Gwydion. His majesty, King Achmed, and I have some important business that we must attend to. Open the gates and let us pass."

Stunned the guard gave a few gruff orders to the other who ran to open the gate. "I'm sorry sir; I did not know it was you. This is a rare thing for likes of you two to have such great need to leave in these early hours."

"Don't worry, you had no way of knowing that we were coming. Just allow us to pass quickly."

"Yes sir"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After nearly an hour of hard galloping from Haguefort, Gwydion could stand it no longer; he brought his horse into rein and waited for Achmed to notice his absence. Almost immediately, Achmed too brought his horse to a stop and then quickly cantered back to where the duke was waiting.

"I suppose that you think that I should explain things to you now," Achmed said.

"It would be nice to know exactly what you are dragging me into."

"Fine, we shall talk as our horses walk. We have no time to stop."


	4. chapter 4

Chapter 4

"So wait, you're telling me that you are able to track Rhapsody's heart beat, and that you just happened to be listening to hers when the men attacked? And not only that, but you have the ability to see over great distances and you actually watched her abduction take place. Then, when you stopped at the palace on your way to get me, you found that, not only did no one have any idea that she had been kidnapped, but there was absolutely no evidence that anything of her fight had taken place at all?"

"I think that's what I just spent the last hour explaining to you," growled Achmed in response to the duke.

"I'm sorry Achmed, but this is a lot for me to comprehend. Why have you never told me these things about you before?"

"Because there was no need to. The less people who know what I am capable of the better. If the men who took Rhapsody had known that I am able to track her heartbeat, then they would have waited till sometime when she was at the coast or at sea."

"Oh yeah, I forgot that part. You can track her anywhere except for in and around water. If that's true, then how are you ever able to know where she is when she's with Ashe?"

Achmed gave no reply but a scowl.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After showing Rhapsody the sword, the F'dor gloated in laughter for a moment, then suddenly turned and left the wagon. She could hear a gruff command being given to someone outside. Then a man came in and replaced the scarf around her mouth.

Since then, Rhapsody had been bounced and jolted around, chained in the back of the wagon for what began to seem to her like an eternity. It had to have been at least three days, perhaps more. In that time she had been given no food, and very small amounts of water, just barely enough to keep her alive.

The man had come in to see her only once since the first stop. He didn't really say anything then, just made sure that she was still securely chained and the gag was still firmly in her mouth.

She had no idea where she was being taken, or for what purpose, just that it was definitely not going to be good with a F'dor as her captor. But her strength was beginning to wane and she knew she had to do something soon. The problem was, after all this time for thought in this stuffy wagon, she still had no clue as to how she might get herself out of this.

"Had Ashe been home when this happened, he would have known right away that something had happened to me," she thought. "Of course, that's probably why they had chosen that night to take me. And now the only people who would notice that I'm gone are either held up in some distant mountain kingdom, or across miles and miles of ocean.

"If Achmed had been nearby, he would have known something had happened. Didn't he once say that if I ever became separated from him or trapped under a cave in he would be able to find me by my heartbeat? He would have heard that I was in trouble just by hearing my heart. But of course he was too far away to have heard anything when it happened." Rhapsody's thoughts had been going around and around in this same circle for the last day or so as she had finally given up hope of getting herself out of this.

"Or was he?" she suddenly pondered. She had seen him track a heartbeat over much greater distances than from Ylorc to the palace. He might have been able to hear her. But that was a long shot at best. Even if he had, he would still have been at least a three days journey away from where she had been taken; he would have to be traveling awfully fast in order to catch up with her.  
She was sure that she was completely on her own, but she could see no way out of her situation. This F'dor was very thorough; he even made sure that she was unable to use her naming lore by using the gag. She was unable to call help to her through her singing and was unable to use her song to affect any of her captors. She had everything of asset that she once possessed taken from her. If someone didn't come in to save her, she was probably never going to escape from this devil.

And then the question that had been bothering her from the start crept upon her once again - what did this F'dor _want_ with her? There was no benefit that Rhapsody could see in this abduction to a F'dor, unless it was to take her as its host. And if that was the case, why didn't he just do so instead of carting her across the country. No, that may be on the F'dor's agenda, but he had something else in mind first. But what could it be?


	5. chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Achmed, I know that it is important to go as fast as possible, but I think that we need to stop for a short rest. These men who took her must be stopping at night. It would be much too suspicious to push travel night and day. And we are not going to be any help to Rhapsody if we're too tired to lift a hand once we reach her."

The king gave a growl. Of course he knew all that, in fact he had known from the start that their quarry was stopping at night. He was able to tell by the resting of her heartbeat. For at least four hours, the heartbeat ceased to travel away from him, and would allow him to gain some ground. In fact, even while the captors were moving, Achmed could tell that they were the faster, but it was still hard to gain enough ground to satisfy his need to catch up.

"I know that they rest for about four hours every night. But it is what I don't know that pushes me. I know she is still alive, but beyond that, I have no idea what is happening to her. I have not been able to see her again using my path lore since the night she was captured."

Gwydion, curiously, was growing more and more worried about Achmed rather than Rhapsody. This did not sound like the confident, aloof king of monstrous men, impervious to emotions and feelings that he had come to see Achmed as. Achmed was worried, more than that, he was scared. Gwydion had been under the assumption that there was nothing that could frighten this king, and now, to see him cracking under such strain was difficult for the duke to comprehend.

_I know he hasn't hardly stopped since he left the Bolg lands three days ago,_ the duke thought to himself_. Besides being worried about Rhapsody, he must be exhausted. He must need to rest at least for a moment. Even this not-quite-man must need to stop at some point._

"Achmed, if they are stopping for four hours every night, then it can't hurt too much for us to stop for two. You said that we are going faster than them after all. We are going to need all of our strength once we reach them to free Rhapsody with the numbers that you're talking about."

A scowl passed over Achmed's worried face, but he began to scan the area for a safe place to stop. He soon spotted small rock outcropping nearby and started guiding his horse towards it.

Gwydion waited in silence for a reply but none seemed to be forth coming. Then he realized that they had altered course just slightly and they were now heading for a rock outcropping. _Good_, he thought to himself. _He's not so far gone that he can't see reason._

"No more than two hours. You sleep an hour while I watch and I will sleep the second," Achmed growled as he stiffly dismounted once they reached the rocks.

"I think that maybe you should take both hours. I know you have hardly rested since you left Ylorc, let alone slept. I just woke up not too many hours ago. Not to mention, between the two of us, I have better horsemanship and am more able to rest in the saddle than you would be." There, now Achmed would have nothing to argue about and he will have to let himself relax for at least two hours.

The Dhracian merely glared at the duke for a moment before tossing down his pack to the ground and laying his head down upon it. He closed his eyes and immediately was asleep. Gwydion took his time setting himself up for the two hour watch. He used his own pack to help cushion his back against the rocks. This was going to be a long, hard journey, with one of the most callous and inconsiderate men that he knew. He better take this time now to prepare himself for the road ahead, just to insure that he kept his sanity. For it was becoming clear that his companion may not be able to keep his head on him the way things were going now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rhapsody was awaken abruptly by the blinding light that poured through the open door. Weakly she lifted her head and squinted into the opening. A gentle breeze was caressing her face that smelled slightly of salt.

"Well my dear, you don't look too worse for wear. You may be a bit hardier than I remembered you to be. No matter, time will soon tell where your breaking point is," the voice of the F'dor gloated. Slowly his form was taking shape in the blinding glare. He was coming into the wagon again, with keys in hand. Two men were right behind him, carrying some type of cloth.

Sudden Rhapsody realized that the demon was humming a strange tune under his breath. She was becoming dizzy and disoriented the closer he got to her. Soon she would be passed out and they would be free to move her without resistance.

Her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped completely to the floor, breathing shallowly. The F'dor continued his humming for a moment more until he was satisfied with her unconsciousness. Reaching down, he unlocked the shackles on her ankles that chained her to the floor. With a quick hand wave, the two men stepped forward and brought their cloth sack down and began to stuff the Lady inside.

The F'dor quickly and securely tied off the top of the sack and turned on his heel, walking back out of the wagon. One of the two men hefted the sack over his shoulder and hulled it out of the wagon, carrying it up the near by gangplank and on to the waiting ship.


	6. chapter 6

Chapter 6

Achmed and Gwydion were obviously nearing the port of Avoanderre. The smell of salt and water assaulted their noses as a cruel reminder that they may be too far away to reach Rhapsody in time. Achmed had been pushing the horses as hard as they would go for the last several hours as he realized how close to the ocean they were getting.

Suddenly Achmed rained his horse to a dead stop, just outside the city walls. What Gwydion could see of the king's face, it had gone completely white and blank. He seemed to be unable to gain breath and was shaking.

"Achmed, what is it?" Gwydion cried as the Firbolg slummed over in the saddle, trying desperately to catch his breath.

"It's… gone. I…lost…her" He gasped.

"What do you mean? What's happening?" Gwydion was becoming agitated. Something was very wrong with his companion, more than just losing Rhapsody's trail. Something was physically wrong with him.

The Duke quickly dismounted, just in time to catch Achmed as he slipped from atop his horse. He still was having difficulty catching his breath. He wasn't unconscious, but he seemed to be heading that way. Gwydion had to find a secure place, and fast.

Glancing around as he supported the faltering king, he saw a small clump of trees not very far off. "Achmed, we have to get to a secure place. If I support you, can you make it to those trees?

He gave only a weak nod in response, but he did seem to be regaining his breath some. Slowly and carefully, the duke helped Achmed along till they made it to the cover of the trees. Both nearly collapsed with exhaustion once they reached the relative safety.

After a few moments of watching the Dhracian closely, Gwydion noticed that color was beginning to return to his face, and his breath was becoming more even and less gaspy. When Achmed seemed to have himself under control once again, Gwydion once again asked, "What just happened?"

"I'm not sure. I thought it was the sudden braking of my link to Rhapsody. My heart has been beating in time with hers for a long time now."

"You thought, you mean that you're not sure that that was the case?"

"No, I have been in contact with other heartbeats for longer time than this and I didn't have such a strong reaction before."

"So what could have caused what just happened to you?"

Achmed thought for a moment. This was something very new to him. He was loath to show any type of weakness to anyone, and this man just saw him at one of his weakest moments. He had been a bit overcome with emotion with the loss of her heartbeat. But there really had been something more happening.

"It felt as if something were happening to her heartbeat just before our link was severed. It had slowed down far too much. If her's continued at the rate it had been, she would be passed out by now."

"Maybe something has happened to her," Gwydion quietly suggested.

Something had happened, this Achmed was sure of. Something, or more precisely, someone had caused her heart to slow to a point that could not keep her consciousness. And the one thing Achmed did not want to voice was his thought on who, or what, that someone was. Achmed had felt, almost smelled, a faint taint to the influence that was slowing their collective heartbeats. A taint that he had known only too well from tracking and hunting down others of its kind.

"Even if something has," Achmed muttered, "I have no way to track her. She is now surrounded by water."

Gwydion was quiet for a moment, then an idea struck him. "Can you get me to where you last felt her?"

"Yes."

"If we can find out which direction the ship that took her at sailed off in, then it would be easier."

"Easier for what?" Achmed demanded impatiently.

"For me to pick up her vibration on the wind. I have been learning how to do that with Tysterisk. Rhapsody is actually the one who encouraged me to learn how to do this. I have been practicing with her vibration; I know it very well now."

"And you failed to mention this before?" Achmed snarled.

"I'm sorry, I never really thought that I would ever be using this particular power. I just did it to appease Rhapsody."

"Well now your going to use it to save her, isn't that ironic. I wonder if she may have had one of her premonitions, or maybe it was her son's premonition."  
"Whatever the case, let's not waste anymore time," Gwydion concluded as he stood up, offering his hand to the king.

Accepting the hand, Achmed rose and followed Gwydion back to where they had left the horses.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bouncing in a sack against the man's back, Rhapsody struggled to stay conscious. She wasn't sure where pretending to faint had gotten her, other than being aware of being transported elsewhere, but at least she would know what was happening. If her hands had been tied, rather than shackled, she may have been able to work her way out of the knots by now, but of course that wasn't the case. But maybe she could get the gag out of her mouth and send out a warning or call to someone.

She began working her arms around her legs to bring them in front of her. It was hard work while being bounced around in a dimly lit sack. But just as the sack she was in was dropped, she had her hands where she wanted them. She reached up and pulled the gag out of her dry mouth. Taking a few moments to work her cramped jaw muscles, she thought of who she should send a call to.

She knew that with all the sea noises going on around her just shouting would gain nobody's attention. Especially since she was sure that she was already on board the F'dor's ship. She was only going to be able to call someone who she knew their true full name. She knew many names, but only a few were either in range to help her and that she trusted enough to save her. The obvious choice would be Achmed since he is the only one who can truly defeat the F'dor. But he was a very long ways away. Gwydion Navarne was closer and more likely to reach her in time. Also Achmed had a very important child to guard, he was needed in Ylorc. She could tell him of the F'dor after she got away and he could track the demon down when he felt like it. Besides, she knew that there would come a time that Gwydion would need to use his tie to that sword to find her.

Quietly she began to hum the tune of Gwydion's name under her breath until she was sure that it was completely right. Then she softly sang his name, adding a summoning and warning tone in with it. Hopefully her song was making it through the thick canvas of the sack and onto the wind. And hopefully once it reached Gwydion, he would know what to do and to move quickly before she was completely out of anyone's reach.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As his ship was leaving port, the F'dor turned and felt, more than heard, a strange vibration coming from the sack that held his captive. He turned and looked over to the sack as it lay slumped against the main mast. In quick hurried steps he rushed over to the sack and tore it open, glaring inside at the now conscious woman inside.

"And what do you think you are doing my dear?" he said gently as he very roughly lifted her out of the sack by her hair and rudely dumped her onto the deck.

Rhapsody only glared back at him, too sore and angry to do anything more. "You should be more careful with the names you reveal to the wind, my dear," the F'dor continued. "One never knows who is listening."

Suddenly, as if she had gone brain dead for a moment, she recalled that she was sure that this F'dor, at the very least, had the skills of a Namer, if he wasn't a Namer himself. Who knows what use of that name he would be able to make.

"I doubt that was the name I was looking for though, so I really have no use for it. I couldn't imagine anyone summoning the Brother to a rescue."

Rhapsody suddenly felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. Well now she knew what the F'dor was after, Achmed's name. But how did he know of the Brother, and how did he know that the Brother was even still alive and living under a new name? As far as they knew there were only four living people who know this fact - Ashe, herself, Grunthor, and Achmed.

"Well now that you know what I want from you, I guess now would be the time to finish your great shocks of the day by revealing who I am." With that the F'dor slowly lowered the hood that had hid his face from sight. Rhapsody looked at him at first with still no recognition. But there was certainly something familiar about that face.

"Yes, I know the face has change some since you last saw it, and it was a very long time ago besides," he said. "But one would think that you might remember your own mentor, Heiles."


	7. chapter 7

Chapter 7

"This is the spot?" the duke asked his companion.

Achmed simply nodded his head once. He was busy keeping an eye out. He hated being so near to the water. There was no way for him to feel the vibrations that had been the bane and blessing of his existence. He felt naked and exposed to the world with no warnings or hints of what might be coming up on him.

"Well, I better see if someone can tell me which direction the boat that was here sailed off…" Gwydion suddenly broke off, staring blankly off into to quickly setting sun.

"What?" Achmed demanded.

Gwydion continued looking off into the west, as if listening to something only he could hear when he respond, "Well, I don't think I need to be asking where they sailed off to anymore. It seems Rhapsody had her own idea for telling me where to look for her."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Shaking himself, Gwydion turned back to Achmed, "I believe I just got a summons from her. I hear my name on the wind, and with it is a call to follow it and a hint of danger as well. She is the only one I can think of that would send such a call."

"Hmm, her or her captor. But either way, it still leads us to her. And I now have to find this man anyway."

"Why?"

Glancing around, Achmed grabbed Gwydion's arm and hulled him off to a secluded alcove. "I should have told you this before we entered the city. My primary objective for this journey has changed. When I was nearly knocked out back there, I sensed the presence of a F'dor. It is a F'dor that has her, I am sure of it. He is now my target. Nothing else matters to me but the elimination of the demon. You may still be in this to simply rescue Rhapsody, but you must know that that is only a distant secondary concern to me now."

"Achmed, how can you say that about Rhapsody? She is my grandmother, and one of your oldest friends. She is of much more importance than killing some demon."

"Wrong! Rhapsody is one life, if this demon is allowed to escape, he could wipe out the whole world. Rhapsody would agree with me. Her life is not near as important as destroying this demon. She has seen what they are capable of and what they wish to do to this world. I hunt demon now, and you must too even if all you wish to do is save your grandmother."

"Alright Achmed, I'll help you. But I am still going to make sure that we get Rhapsody out of there, agreed?"

Achmed gave a single nod once again and turned to walk back to where they had been before he pulled them aside.

"Wait, I know where she went now. What we need now is a boat of our own to reach her."

Achmed knew that this part had been coming but had been dreading it. Still not knowing how to swim, he found the thought of being completely surrounded by water, being held up by a few planks of wood, was not something he was looking forward to.

"I trust that you know how to sail a boat?" Achmed asked the duke.

"Yes, of course. But the problem is finding a boat that just the two of us can sail that will be able to catch up to the ship that they sailed off in."

"Where do you think they are heading to?" Achmed asked suddenly.

Caught a bit off guard, Gwydion responded, "Ah, I don't know. I didn't think about that. They were heading nearly due west, just a little to the north. As far as I know the first landfall in that direction is the Northland. Maybe Gaematia if they adjust their course to the south some. Or possibly Manosse, if they shifted south after clearing Gaematia."

"We need to know how far we a expecting to go. If they are going all the way to Northland or Manosse then we should see about gaining access to a larger ship that is sailing out to those locations. If they are going to Gaematia, which I doubt, we could probably make it on our own. But there is one other option."

"And what would that be?" Gwydion asked.

"They may be heading to a small nearby island. I would suspect that they just want to be somewhere that it would be difficult to be found. Gaematia is probably not their choice because that is where her husband currently is, and he would know the second she set foot on the island. Manosse and Northland are much more distant and would have required them to take passage on a boat that was already going there, meaning their passage and cargo would have to have been logged. That would not be good for their situation. That would only leave some nearby island to take shelter on."

"Well, if that is the case then we wouldn't have to wait too long to know if they are stopping just off the coast. I can track them the same way you had before and know if they are moving or not."

"Of course, if our guess is wrong then it will be time wasted in our hunt."

"That is a problem."

Achmed stood and stared off into the nearly set sun, studying the riddle a bit longer. "Find us a boat that we can take ourselves as well as a ship that we can board that will take us to Manosse. We will wait until midnight, if they have not stopped before then, we will plan to head to Manosse. If they do stop, we will head out and find whatever island they are hiding out at."

"Sounds like a good plan. I'll go and do that. What will you do?"

"Gather information." And with that Achmed slipped into the crowd and was gone form Gwydion's sight in a flash. Shaking his head, Gwydion entered the milling crowd, heading in the opposite direction his silent friend had just passed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Why don't we just drown ourselves now and get it over with," Achmed sneered as he glared at the boat that Gwydion expected them to take.

"Achmed, I know a thing or two about sailing, and we won't have to worry about wind and storm problems, I can make sure that the wind is always in our favor."  
Achmed merely glared at both the duke and the boat all in one. He did not want to trust his life to this flimsy looking, so called boat, that to him appeared to merely be a few timbers and a piece of canvas.

Gwydion explained to the king that the boat was made of sound wood well pegged and caulked, with a stout mast and sail. Also she was clinker-built, with planks overlapped and clenched one upon the other for strength in high seas.

Still, Achmed was very nervous about the whole thing of trusting his life to this piece of wood.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Achmed, would you relax? We're not going to sink, I promise," Gwydion called over the rush of the wind. He had been using his connection to the wind to speed their boat on to their goal. The Island was now just within sight with notice of the main land being left behind nearly an hour ago. They were further out than they had thought they would be.

Achmed had been tense and on edge since he had first stepped into the boat, and the high winds that Gwydion was causing wasn't helping his nerves any. He was still desperately seeking out any hint of Rhapsody, but the rush of water was just too much for his senses.

"I think we should slow down now, we don't want the captors to see us coming," Achmed growled.

"Right," said Gwydion as the wind began to die down around them.

 This paragraph was borrowed from Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. My thanks to her for helping me fill in a description of a boat, an area that I am clueless in.

 This paragraph was borrowed from Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. My thanks to her for helping me fill in a description of a boat, an area that I am clueless in.


	8. chapter 8

Chapter 8

Rhapsody stared at this man who once had been her mentor in shock and disbelief. How could he possibly still be alive? She had assumed that he must have been dead when he vanished without warning before her training as a Namer had been completed.

"Speechless my dear? Well no wonder. I'm sure that you thought that I have been dead these long years. No matter, what counts now is that I am here now, and I know that you hold some information that I need. So why don't you be a good student and tell your old teacher what he wants to know?"

"And what would that be?"

"You know very well what I want. I want the name that you gave to the Brother shortly before your escape from the Island. And don't play dumb with me my dear," he started as she began to feign a bewildered look. "I know that the only way that he could have escaped from his chain would have been to get a new name, and you were the only one on the Island besides me who could have given it to him at the time."

"I don't understand," she replayed, for she truly didn't understand how this all worked.

"I suppose you may not know all about the Brother's history. You always did seem to be a bit naive. But one would think that you would have been smart enough to research the character of someone that you associate with, let alone form an alliance with."

Now this was going too far. Not only did this man know who she was and who Achmed had been, but he also knew that he was a friend of hers and the ruler of a nation. If he already knew this much, why did he need her to tell him the name?

"I saw the two of you at the moot those many years ago when you summoned the Cymrians. Oh, by the way, that was some very nice naming work that you did during that time. You must have had a very good teacher." His smile with this was enough to churn Rhapsody's stomach.

"Yes, I had a great teacher. And though you may share some resemblance to him, you are defiantly not the man that taught me."

This brought a soft chuckle from him. "Well said, my dear. You are correct. I am not that same man who taught you. I am much more powerful now and far superior. You see, the man who you knew had been the reason that your friend had been imprisoned by my associate in the first place."

This was almost more than Rhapsody could take. How could this man possibly know about what has happened to Achmed in his pervious life? It was true that another F'dor had captured Achmed's name, the Brother, and had used it to gain control over him. That F'dor had found particular pleasure in owning and controlling a member of the race whose pure reason for being was to seek out and destroy all F'dor that roamed the world. The fact that this had ever happened the three of them, Grunthor, Achmed, and herself, were sure that they were the only ones who knew of it.

When that F'dor had released the Shing into the world to seek out Achmed after Rhapsody had changed his name, he had been greatly weakened which allowed a hero by the name of MacQuieth to destroy him. That F'dor was the only other known person who would have had knowledge of Achmed's former imprisonment. Except, perhaps, for the Namer who had named the Brother for the F'dor in the first place…

Awareness was dawning on Rhapsody the more she thought of it. Her mentor must have been captured and forced to give the name to the F'dor. Then, when that F'dor was finished with Heiles, allowed another F'dor to take over and possess what was left of him. For Heiles to reveal another's name to someone like a F'dor, he must have been completely broken, broken enough that any F'dor, no matter how powerful at the time, would have had an easy time at overpowering him. But here was the first evidence that the host's memories were retained by the F'dor, and in this case, even the former power and lore that the Namer had possessed.

All of these thoughts played across Rhapsody's face in a matter of moments as the F'dor, once Namer, watched. "You see, my dear? I know you well; at least I can remember knowing you. Many, many years ago the great Tsoltan captured and tortured the Brother's name from the once great Namer, Heiles. When Tsoltan finished with him, Heiles was barely more than an empty shell which Tsoltan was only too ready to fill with his brethren. He had recently discovered me, clinging desperately to some wreck of a Firbolg. This was all I had been able to gain power over. Then I was introduced to your mentor, now I'm the most powerful F'dor that ever was. Isn't that ironic? I went from rags to riches in one change of hosts. You see my dear, though Heiles was completely broken after the torture, he was still in possession of himself. His conciseness was still in tact; his being and soul were still present when I entered him. It was a bit of a struggle to suppress and eventually destroy him, but he was too weak to stand a chance against me. Now, thanks to his stubbornness, I have all of the knowledge, lore, and power that he once possessed."

Rhapsody merely sat and stared at this being in front of her. She suddenly knew, without any proof or reason, that Heiles had not been completely destroyed. He may have been polluted and warped, or maybe still suppressed, but she knew in her heart that the Namer was not completely gone. But even with this new information, she still had no idea what she could possibly do in this situation that she was now in.

"I see that I have rendered you completely speechless now. Hopefully for your sake this condition is not permanate as it is now your turn to give over a name. Ironically enough, it's the name of the same creature that was once pulled from me."

"You know that you will never willingly get that name from me. So why don't you save yourself the trouble and start your methods of extracting information now instead of hovering over me spouting off your life history? You F'dor are all the same, you have this insane need to drag out and over dramatize everything. I would be careful if I were you, that's what brought about the end of the last F'dor I helped vanquish. If Lanacan Orlando had just killed me as soon as I entered the room, I would never have had the chance to plunge that sword that your holding into his heart and watch it burn away," She replied with some a wicked sneer playing at her lips and tone. It was her vein attempt to impress and possibly connect with the part of him that had been her friend and teacher. Perhaps her boasting would reach Heiles and give him a hope that had never touched him before.

Unfortunately, Rhapsody's boastings only brought forth an amused chuckle from the F'dor. "Such brave and impatient words, Rhapsody my dear. Of course I know that you're never going to willing tell me what I want. Remember, it was I who was last in this position and it was I who trained you in the seriousness of giving away a things true name to anyone who wishes to do evil. I just thought that you deserved to know what became of your poor teacher and why he never returned to you to finish your training. I now only wait to land upon the island to start the, ah, debriefing as you would. I find it so much easier to perform these things on a stable ground."

With that he F'dor reached down and replaced the gag around Rhapsody's mouth and turned and walked away from her, leaving her to ponder all that he had said and to sink lower and lower in her hopelessness. Now the only thing that would save her she was certain was if Gwydion had heard her call and came to her rescue. But even if he came, it may already be too late, and what chance would he have against all of the F'dor's men and the F'dor himself? All that she had left to save her friend from the horrible fate that he once had to endure would be to make sure that she died before the information was pulled from her. She would have to keep her eyes open for any opportunity at all to end her life quickly. It would not do to have such a powerful F'dor in control of the one man who could not only destroy him, but also who was the protector of the key to releasing all of the F'dor held within the vault upon the land.


	9. chapter 9

Chapter 9

The sun was low in the sky as the two men approached the island. The rays of the bright sun nearly had them blinded so that they were almost on top of the captor's ship before they knew it. Luckily, nearly all of the crew was either below deck sleeping or on shore and did not notice the two interlopers.

"We should find a spot to land around that bluff to keep from being noticed," Gwydion said.

Achmed nodded and they rounded the bluff without being spotted. Achmed had been completely silent for the last hour. He had been straining to hear any sound of the missing heartbeat that he had followed most of the way to where the two hunters now found themselves. Now, he was sure that he might be getting faint wisps of vibrations in this tumult of waves that pounded his senses.

As they dragged the boat on shore and hid it behind a screen of branches, the king now was able to hear that heart clearly. She was defiantly on the island and not still on the ship as they had feared. But her heart was racing; something was happening that he did not want to comprehend. Yet, he knew that they must know what was happening and what the circumstances were.

"We have to get closer to them and have a look at what is happening. I am able to tell that they are just on shore, by their ship," Achmed told his companion in a very distant tone. He was preparing to take a quick look into what was happening before they approached. He knew that he had not been able to use his path lore to find Rhapsody since he first witnessed her abduction, but he hoped that the captor felt that the island was safe enough to take down the barriers that had blocked the king.

Kneeling on the ground, Achmed removed his right glove and placed his bare hand gently on the sand. Focusing on the heartbeat, he gathered himself and let his sight fly briefly across the space between him and Rhapsody. In a second he was focused on the scene that was unfolding around her. It was horrible, whips and various nasty looking iron instruments littered the sand. A fire was burning hotly and he watched as an iron poker was removed from the flames. The man who carried this poker was definitely the source to the foul vibrations that Achmed had felt outside of Avanderre.

Forcing himself to look away from this man, he looked towards the being that was object of the foul man's attention. At first, he had no recognition of this person tied to a wooden stake firmly planted in the ground. Then he caught sight of the hair and realized in horror that this was the Lady Cymrian, his dearest friend, Rhapsody.

She was riddled with angry, red, welling lines and had multiple burn blisters up and down her arms and one on her cheek. But, even as he looked at her and was stricken by the wounds inflicted on her, he knew that this torture was only beginning. The marks were nothing of much consequence. Though they must be terribly painful, it was nothing life threatening and most of the lashes were barely deep enough to leave permanent scars. This man, if that is what you could call him, was just getting warmed up. No doubt he just wanted to get her to realize different levels of pain. His real instruments would be lack of food and water. Though Achmed knew that Rhapsody had probably had neither of these things in abundance since her capture; he could tell that she was still not terribly dehydrated or malnourished yet.

Well now that Achmed had seen what the situation was like he decided it would do no good to have Gwydion catching sight of Rhapsody like that. He may rush in to save the day right then and that could be disastrous.

"On second thought, we should stay here for another hour. The sun will be nearly set by then and it will be easier to travel across the island undetected," he stated as he came out of his trance. Gwydion merely looked at his partner for a moment while trying to gage what the king was feeling and thinking. Getting nothing from him, Gwydion simply sat down and pulled out the canteen to have a drink.

"Be careful with that," the Dhracian warned sharply. "I'm sure that Rhapsody will need that more than us when we get her." With that, he melted in to the forest of the island, leaving Gwydion alone on the deserted beach.

There the duke sat, pondering what was to happen in the next few hours. The two of them were obviously outnumbered by at least ten to one. What could the two of them possibly accomplish here other than to give the captors two more prisoners? Or, what was more likely, give them two corpses.

Gwydion followed this train of thought for a while until he realized that the sun had sunk to nearly completely below the horizon. It was past time for them to set out to the other camp, but Achmed had not returned. The duke began to get worried. What if the king had been scouting, which is what Gwydion knew to be the cause of his absence, and had been captured as well? What could he, one person, do then?

As he paced up and down the small beach worrying about what might have happened to his companion, Achmed crepted up behind the duke nearly causing him to jump out of his skin when the Dhracian's gloved hand came to rest on the duke's shoulder.

"Calm down. I was just waiting till the men went back onto the ship for the night. There are only two left on the beach to guard her, this should be a lot easier than we thought."

"They left Rhapsody on the beach? I don't understand, what are they doing with her?"

"They are trying to get some kind of information from her. That is all that I can tell. Now please, make no moves until I have taken the guards out. Once they are taken care of, then you can go in and get her and bring her directly back here. I'll follow a ways behind to make sure that no alarms have been raised. You got it?"

"Yes."

"Good, let's go."


	10. chapter 10

Chapter 10

Two shadows slipped silently through the trees to the edge of the clearing. One waved the other shadow off to take a closer position to the figure slumped against a post further down the beach.

Slowly and silently, Achmed lowered his Cwellan, sighted down the two guards in front of him, and let fire. Three whisper thin disks flew through the air, silently taking out the first guard. Before the other even fully realized that his companion was down, another three disks embedded themselves deep into his neck, cutting off any cry of alarm he may have given.

Like a shadow, Achmed dissolved once again into the forest as Gwydion entered the clearing to complete his task for the rescue.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rhapsody heard the soft footsteps coming toward her. She knew that it must be one of the guards checking on her bonds. This was the only chance that she might have to end her life. It was a long shot, but if she could get the name of this man, she could make him kill her. Luckily, Heiles had deemed this island safe enough to leave her gag off.

She felt the strong hands of the guard behind her, doing something to the bonds. Probably tightening them, Rhapsody supposed. "Sir, would you please tell me your name?" It was all that she could think of at the moment, hopefully it would have shock value and the man would not be very intelligent in the ways of a Namer.

"You already know my name," a familiar voice whispered softly in her ear. "You also know the man who I was named after, Gwydion."

Lifting her head stiffly Rhapsody tried to look behind her, but found that she was in too much pain to move like that. "Shh, don't worry; I'll have you free in a second."

"Gwydion, I should never have called you. I may have gotten you in serious trouble."

"We'll talk about that after I have you safely away from here, just be quiet right now, ok?"

Rhapsody slowly nodded. She felt the moment that her hands were free and then she saw the figure of her adopted grandson move in front of her to release her legs from their bonds. It was a good thing that the shackles had since been deemed overkill and were replaced in favor of simple rope. This made it much easier for Gwydion to simply cut through them with his dagger.

Rhapsody was glad to see that the duke had been thoughtful enough to not use his sword to cut her bonds. That would almost certainly draw the F'dor out with the raw elemental power so near by.

When Gwydion had finished he tried to help Rhapsody to standing, but they both discovered that she was in no shape to walk herself out. "You'll have to carry me," she whispered into his ear. He nodded and gently lifted her and began the trek back to the shore where he and Achmed had landed to await the return of the Firbolg king.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Achmed had stayed near the beach until he saw Gwydion get Rhapsody safely away. After that, wrapped in darkness, he descended upon the beach. Silently the shadow that had once been Achmed approached the ship and began to scale the outside of it to peer over the walls at the deck. As he figured, all was silent and there had been no guards posted above deck. He slipped onto the deck and began to prowl across, blending from shadow to shadow; following some primal vibrational call that only he could hear.

The F'dor was close, this he knew without a doubt. He tracked the vibration deeper into the ship until he was standing just outside of the chamber door which he knew to house the demon. The ancestral rage burned inside of him as he let the vibrations of this ancient evil wash over him. He would have burst into the room then and there to perform the thrall ritual and end that demon's existence, but suddenly another familiar vibration entered his awareness. It didn't come like it normally did with the near deafening call that he had been accustomed to, but it was defiantly the feel of that object. Daystar Clarion had just been drawn. That ancient elemental sword that Rhapsody was the bearer of and that he had witnessed her wielding as she fought for her life in her palace gardens. Achmed had completely forgotten about the sword until that moment. The F'dor now had control over this sword. The only sword that had the power of the only element that superceded his own element of fire. Achmed knew that he would have to have the help of at least Gwydion if not Rhapsody too in order to have any possibility of bringing this F'dor an end.

Just as silently as he entered, Achmed turned and left the ship to meet up with his companions upon the other beach where they awaited him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What do you mean Achmed is here?" Rhapsody demanded. Gwydion had just finished telling her that they were waiting for Achmed's return to figure out what they were to do next. Rhapsody had explained to Gwydion that they could not leave her sword in the hands of the F'dor and that Achmed was the only one who would be able to put an end to it.

"It was he who brought me on this rescue. We had already been on your trail when your call reached me. It came just at the right time too since Achmed couldn't track you across the sea." Gwydion had started out sounding enthusiastic about the affair until he noticed the look of horror that was spreading across his grandmother's face.

"He's here? Achmed is here? Damn him. Where is he? Where did he go to?" She demanded.

Confused with her reaction Gwydion haltingly answered, "He said he would meet us back here after he made sure that we were not spotted. Come to think of it, he should have been back by now."

"Hrekin… Does he know that it is a F'dor that had captured me?"

"Y-yes, he told me that he believed that it may be a demon."

"Damn him. He's gone off to fight the thing himself, I'm sure of it. His damn primal need to rid the world of these things is going to play right into its hands. We have to stop Achmed," Rhapsody concluded as she struggled to her faltering feet. After a few steps, she collapsed and struggled to rise once again.

Gwydion was dazed with her outburst for a moment before he realized that she really meant to go out after Achmed. Hurrying to her side, the duke physically had to restrain her from toddling off into the forest.

"Rhapsody, I don't understand you. A moment ago you were saying that Achmed would be the only one who could help us and now you wish that he wasn't here? What is going on?"

"Yes, what is going on?" a sandy voice sounded as a shadow detached from the forest.

"Achmed, how in the name of all the gods did you know to track me across the country to this island? Do you realize what danger you are putting all of us in by just being here?" Rhapsody spat.

"Not exactly the thank you that I was looking for. I guess my rescuing you has become so common place that I no longer deserve one."

"Knock it off Achmed. It's because of you that I was captured in the first place. Do you know what that demon wants from me?"

"No, but I'm sure your about to tell me," The Dhracian replied.

"He wants your name!"

A blanket of silence descended on the trio. Gwydion could feel the tension in the air even though he couldn't recognize the cause. Achmed had gone completely rigid as he stared directly into Rhapsody's eyes. There was some meaning or memory that these two shared that was completely lost on the duke.

Finally, unable to stand the silence any longer, Gwydion broke it with, "I don't understand, what does that mean?"

A moment more of silence and Rhapsody answered softly, "It means that this F'dor is trying to possess Achmed as another one in the old land had done before."

Achmed slowly lowered his head and turned around, facing the sea from which they had come. He sank to the sand and sat there in utter silence.

"Achmed, this F'dor's host is the same Namer who gave your name to Tsoltan those many century's ago. He's also my missing mentor. Tsoltan captured him, as he has just me, and forced him to give the demon your old name. When Tsoltan finished with Heiles, he gave the broken body over to another F'dor to possess. Unfortunately, Heiles was not yet completely destroyed and the F'dor now has all of the memory, lore, and power that Heiles once possessed." Rhapsody explained all this gently and softly, though urgently so that her friend would realize the danger that his presence was putting on not just them, but the entire world.

"You know that this is more serious than it was last time this happened? You have much more valuable information and important duties now than you did in the old land. He must not capture you. Once again, the fate of the world comes down to us, what we decided to do in these next few moments will decided the future of all."

"Yes, Rhapsody. I know what is at stake here. We must destroy this demon, but he is too powerful and it would be too dangerous for me to approach him to perform the Thrall ritual. But that is the only way that we could destroy him."

"And so is our dilemma." Rhapsody concluded.


	11. chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Well, now that we have figured out the hopelessness of our situation, let's figure out what we can do about it instead of wallowing in our self pity and letting our time to act pass," Gwydion broke into the brooding thoughts of the two monarchs. "If we wait until daylight, we will be too late because our presence will have been discovered by the dead guards and Rhapsody's absence. If we leave now to come upon this demon at a later time, there is no telling what he might accomplish in the mean time. We are going to have to come upon him now and get this thing over with."

"Achmed, Gwydion's right. We have to act now. Though I hate to have you anywhere near that demon. There is no telling what he might be capable of now."

Achmed sighed before standing and once again facing his companions. "So we do this tonight. What do you suggest we do?" He asked turning to Gwydion, "Since you're the one who wants to take care of this demon now.

"Well, first of all we are going to have to get the creature off of the ship and away from his men. It won't do to have to fight both the demon and his crew at once. Once that is accomplished we have to get Rhapsody's sword away from him. That is too much elemental control for us to fight. Finally, I will have to slay the creature while Achmed holds it in thrall."

"It's as easy as that, huh?" Achmed snorted.

"Yes, it's as easy as that," Gwydion replied confidently. "I think I know how to get it to come to us, if you two can figure out the other two parts."

"I can get my sword back. I am sure of that, but how do you plan to go up against such a powerful Namer? He knows your first name Achmed, if he even suspects that your anywhere on this island, he would have enough power over you to make you reveal yourself to him."

"I guess that I will have to remain concealed. I'll wait near the ship for him to emerge and ensure that none of his men follow him. I can then go deeper into the woods and perform the ritual from there. Does he know what I am?"

"Yes."

"Hrekin. Alright, does he know if I am the only one in this land?"

"I don't know. But he does know that we are friends and he may just assume that it is you when he senses the ritual taking place.

"Is there any thing that you can do to distract him from what I am doing?" Achmed asked the singer.

Rhapsody closed her eyes and recalled the first time that she came up against a F'dor…

_The Benison stood in furious silence and more than a little pain, absorbing the ringing of the one hundred forty-six bells that now sang…The ground around him was no longer desecrated, but beginning to resanctify, and with it he could feel the draining of his power. He opened his mouth to speak the words of damnation. But he couldn't find them in his memory…_

_There was another sound here, far older and more terrifying one… It was a sandy sound, one that had not been in his memory in his life time… It was a sound that whispered death._

"Yes, I believe I can distract him. Remember how when we came up against Lanacan and he didn't realize at first that he had been ensnared?"

"Yes, but he did realize it and was still able to work his powers on you."

"Yes, but as long as you had him completely ensnared before he realized what is happening he didn't touch you. Remember it was me that Lanacan tried to stop? He never once tried to stop you, even though he knew that you were the one that held him in the Thrall."

"That is true, I have wondered about that. Michael was only able to attack me because I had not yet finished the ritual. He blew me off the cliff before I had him completely ensnared. But as I recall, Lanacan was unable to move at all when I had him in thrall."

"Yes, so if I can make a distraction large enough, we should have a chance," Rhapsody concluded. The three then came into a huddle to cement the rest of their plans. This was going to be a huge challenge for them, and they needed to be prepared for whatever the demon threw at them.


	12. chapter 12

Chapter 12

Achmed had drawn back towards the other beach where the ship was harboring as Rhapsody and Gwydion prepared for their battle upon their shore. Gwydion was to be the bait. When the signal was given, he was to draw his sword which would undoubtedly draw the F'dor to him in search of this new elemental power. The gamble here was would the F'dor come alone, or would he bring his thralls with him? The hope was that the jealous and overconfident F'dor would come alone to investigate.

The time allotted had passed and now Gwydion waited only for the signal from Rhapsody who was hidden in just inside the tree line at the other end of the beach. Gwydion heard the shrill whistle issue from her direction and drew his sword, causing a rush of wind to blow around him. He stood poised and ready for anything that might come at him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The F'dor Heiles sat in the dark of his chamber, bathing in the ethereal glow of the sword that he had taken from the Lirin Queen and Lady Cymrian. It really was a source of great power and he desired greatly to know the secrets of that power.

Suddenly, a power beyond his room echoed in his mind's ear. It was as if a whistle had been sounded and he immediately knew directly where that power was coming from, just a short distance from the ship across the island. It had to be on the island, or else he would not have been able to hear the call so clearly. Yes, there was a new power on the island, a power that was not being wielded, only present.

This was almost too much for the F'dor to ignore. To have an ancient power in his hand and to sense another just within his reach was maddening. He had to possess both these powers and he had to get the other now. There was no telling who might come across that other power out there. Even if it was his own men, he could not trust one of those brutes with a tremendous power like that. No, he had to go out for it now, and alone. Besides, what was going to stop him? He was the most powerful F'dor that ever walked the earth. There was no one in this land that would even come close to stopping him.

With the decision made, he quickly sheathed the sword in his hand in the scarab that he had also taken from Rhapsody, and attached it to his waist. He was never going to let this thing out of his sight. Silently, with extra aid from his naming lore, he left the confines of the ship and began to cross through the forest, following the source of the power.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Achmed watched as a shadow left the ship. It was completely alone, and reeked of F'dor to his senses. This was definitely the target. The king set a parallel path to the F'dor through the vegetation, keeping out of sight and moving just as silently on his own without the aid of the name of silence. When the F'dor reached the shore where Gwydion waited, Achmed was still quite deep in the woods, well out of sight from the demon. He waited for the signal to start his part of the plan.

Rhapsody waited, hidden in the brush just outside the clearing of the beach. She had to be completely ready for the entrance of the F'dor. It was up to her to keep the F'dor from killing Gwydion on sight and taking his sword from him.

Suddenly, there was a silent movement at the edge of the tree line opposite of her position. Gwydion tensed and came to a fighting stance, praying that the F'dor would draw Daystar Clarion to defend himself, rather than call upon his naming lore to vanquish the wielder of the power that it sought.

The F'dor burst into the clearing at near a run. He stopped dead at seeing Gwydion and immediately drew the weapon he carried without thinking. The moment Daystar Clarion was in his hand and out of the sheaf, another figure entered his view. He recognized it as being Rhapsody just a second too late to react. Without warning, the girl spoke and the sword leapt from his hand directly into her's. Again words came from the girl's mouth and brilliant deafening crashes of light smote the ground first between him and her then between him and the man and then two more behind and to the other side of him. When he was finally able to see again, though his ears still rang, he found himself alone on the beach. Both the girl and that man with the powerful sword were gone. He could not even gather a hint of the power that had just lured him to that place.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As soon as the F'dor had drawn the sword Rhapsody went into action. She sprang from her hiding place, yelling her naming lore into the night.

"I, Rhapsody the Iliachenva'ar summon Daystar Clarion to me, its rightful wielder." And as hoped, the sword sprang into her hand, blazing once again in its old blue fire. Without missing a beat, she pointed the sword at the first of the four stars that she had already chose and identified to use and called its fire down from the heavens. She repeated this action three more times while Gwydion slipped off of the beach and hid in the under growth near the F'dor. After calling the final blast, she too hid herself back where she had started out.

The F'dor stood still in the center of the clearing. His eyes were now able to see clearly, but the ringing in his ears had not cleared. In fact, the ringing was more like a buzzing sound and it was growing rather than fading. The sound was soft, yet it sounded right through the core of the demon. It frightened him, yet his fear drove him to pretend that the noise was only a residual from the deafening crashing that had just consumed the grove.

Slowly he began to realize that the sound was the cause of a new headache that was growing. And finally, he was able to pinpoint a location to the sound. He began to turn towards the forest where the sound was coming from when suddenly his entire body became completely rigid and convulsed toward the source of the sound. He found that he was completely trapped where he stood, unable to move any muscle save his eyes.

Looking around frantically, he noticed movement just on the edge of his range of vision. An attacker was heading right for him and there were only moments left to act. He knew now what the sound must be and why it was that he was completely trapped in it. It could only be the sound of the Thrall ritual that was meant to bind a F'dor to its host so that both would be able to be killed at once. So leaving this body was not possible. The only thing he could do to stop his demise now would be to halt this new attacker in some other method than combat… or, maybe to eliminate the source of the sound.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gwydion watched as the F'dor tried to clear his head after the deafening starbursts. Gwydion knew that the F'dor was hearing something still well after his own ears had cleared, but the F'dor did not seem to have picked up that something was definitely wrong yet.

As the duke continued to watch the demon intently, thoughts began to drift though his head. Realization that he, Gwydion, was about to attempt to slay a very powerful demon in a matter of moments. He would be the only one standing between this demon and countless numbers of innocents who lives the demon may cut short if Gwydion were to fail. It was a great burden and one with many, many risks and dangers in it that the duke did not even want to think about. His very soul was at stake here and yet it seemed trivial compared to the countless souls that would be at stake if he did not even try to complete the task set before him.

As these final thoughts finished running through Gwydion's head leaving a new resolve in place, he watched as the F'dor began to turn toward the place where Achmed was concealed. _No, he's found Achmed before the trap is closed, this is it._ He thought.

But then the sudden convulsion that Achmed had told him to wait for came. Silently and quickly, Gwydion slipped from his cover to come at the demon from behind. It could not do anything to him if it never knew what hit it. Still there was great risk in what he was about to do.

As he was rushing at this foul creature, a great peace descended as a faint breeze sounded around him. A soft whisper sounded on that breeze that he had always longed to hear, yet had not even considered it to be a part of this feat. It was the Whisper that told him, live or die, he was now a Kinsman. And with that final thought he reached and drew his sword when a great vibration shuddered though him, deep in to his very core, and brought him to a sudden halt.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

This attacker could only be the man that was on the beach with the elemental sword earlier. And the only man who could have possibly known where to find Rhapsody would be the one that she had summoned with her call. True, it was probably not this man's entire name with all of the connections that would be needed for a true possession, but it should be enough to bring his attacker to a halt long enough for him to find another solution.

Acting swiftly, the F'dor recalled the name that he had heard Rhapsody singing not all that long ago and repeated the name verbatim, ending with a simple command of halting. A grin crept across the demon's pain riddled face when the movement of this interloper stopped, just out of reach of himself.

_Now, to see about this Dhracian,_ the F'dor thought. The only Dhracian that he was aware of was King Achmed, the very one who he had wished to find. If only he had gotten the king's full name by now, there would be no problem at all. But even a partial name could be of help in this circumstance. Much like this Gwydion man halted next to him, all he had to do was use what he knew of Achmed's name to bring a halt to the ritual. After that, he would be free to act as he chose.

_Now, I know he is King Achmed, but I might need a bit more than that… I know he is a Dhracian and that he is king of the Firbolg. That should be enough to halt him for at least a moment; and a moment is all I need._

But that moment would never come for the F'dor. It was then that Rhapsody realized why Gwydion had froze when he was so close to ending it. The F'dor had used the name that he had heard from her to give a command of halting. But Rhapsody knew that two could play at this game.

Leaping once again from her hiding spot, she pointed Daystar Clarion at Gwydion calling out his name, ending with a command to resume. Gwydion was close enough that the F'dor didn't have even a moment's thought to stop him again. Still captured in the hold of the Thrall, both man and demon writhed in pain as the wind sword plunged through Heiles' back, showing through the other side out of his chest.

Gwydion commanded the wind from his sword to sweep through the body, purging the body of the unholy being of the F'dor. Heiles collapsed to his knees, staring down at the misty outline of the sword point that protruded from his chest. Running to his side, Rhapsody caught him and looked deeply into the man's eyes, hoping against hope that the man she had once known was now there, free from the demon.

Gasping, Heiles looked into her eyes struggling with words, "I-I am so sorry dear one… I know that I have failed my duties to teach and protect the lore that I held. Forgive me?" It was almost a whisper, but Rhapsody heard ever word crystal clear as if spoken directly into her heart.

"There is nothing to forgive. You have held to your office as best you could. Now your soul is free of the demon to wander as it will. But I must release it from your body to be sure," Rhapsody responded. Tears were flowing down her face as she struggled to remain strong for this man who she once loved and cared for so very much. She hated what she must now do after all these years of separation, but it was the only way to be absolutely sure that the demon was truly destroyed.

She could hear that the Thrall was beginning to waver and Achmed would not be able to keep it up much longer. Giving Heiles' hand a final parting squeeze, Rhapsody backed away from him. She looked into the heavens and sighted a star and called forth its name, bringing a rush of star fire to the earth once again. This time, to consume and purify the body of her once friend and teacher


	13. chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Well, we did it again… We saved the world from absolute evil," Achmed sighed as he looked on the blackened glassy spot of the beach where the demon met its final end.

"Yes, it does seem our lot in life to purge the world of the demons. But that has always been your burden to bear, Achmed. But now, you have others to help you. As you have said that you will always be behind me, so shall I always be there to help you," Rhapsody replied.

"As shall I," Gwydion voiced, stepping forward. "Whenever you have need of my help, all you have to do is ask it."

Achmed looked from the duke back to his dear friend. He nodded once and turned to find and uncover their hidden boat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The journey back to Navarne was an uneventful one spent in much silence and contemplation from all three of the travelers. Once at Haguefort, Gwydion invited his friends to spend a few nights before traveling on, but neither wanted to stay in one place yet. So, bidding the duke farewell, the two continued on.

As they neared the palace, both realized that they would be separated by many miles again. They had once again begun to feel at ease and comfortable in each others presence. Neither truly wished to part, yet Rhapsody knew that Achmed would never remain in the palace with her, even for one night.

She got a huge shock when, out of the blue Achmed said to her just outside of the palace, "You know, you are always welcome to stay in the Cauldron if you don't wish to return to your queenly duties yet."

Halting for a moment to take in what her friend was saying to her, Rhapsody responded, "Yes Achmed, I think I would love to come with you to stay in Ylorc for a while. It will still be quite some time before Ashe, Meridion, and Anborn return. I could use your's and Grunthor's company in the meantime. And it has been a long time since I have looked in on my special grandchild."

With that, the course was adjusted to bypass the palace altogether, finally coming to a rest in Ylorc.


End file.
